Smartphones in wrong hands: A letter to Uganda’s youth

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By Pamela Ankunda

On a certain group chat, a friend posted something: “Many smartphones and data bundles are in wrong hands.” I can’t stop thinking about it. If you create or consume deep fake AI, or act as an instigator of chaos, an abuser of social media freedoms, you are the one with the wrong hands. This article carries no statistics. Not today.

A Letter to the Youthful You

So, I wrote this letter to the youthful you, 18, young, tech savvy, outright demanding, with a sense of privilege—very beautiful, intelligent and quick on your feet. Let me start by telling the millions of you that this is your country. Own it with knowledge, not emotion.

See, Uganda’s story can never be told without acknowledging its greatest resource—its young people. You. With over 70% of the population below 30, you—the youth—naturally sit at the centre of every national conversation, especially today, in an election season where the choices made today directly shape your tomorrow. In 25 years, you will be in your 40s—toddlers all over the place. Therefore, let’s address their future together.

At 18, you carry a responsibility, but also a privilege: to participate, to question and to understand the forces shaping our common future.

As one common saying goes, “It is the older bird that teaches the young one to fly,” yet the young must also learn to see for themselves—particularly now, in a world of information where truth and misinformation often travel side by side, where too many smartphones and data are in the wrong hands. I can’t stop thinking about it—can I?

The False Promise of Chaos

See, for years, some political actors have appealed to frustration by suggesting that Uganda cannot progress unless chaos erupts or the system collapses. This will be alien to you. But social media has made you believe that there are endless opportunities waiting for you—at university and after.

The sad truth is—yes, there are immense opportunities, but not if you are the wrong hands that carry that smartphone and data.

Beyond Kampala: Understanding Uganda’s Full Story

The first opportunity has come through the travels you’ve made during this campaign season—some for the first time. For many so-called “content creators,” what they saw outside Kampala challenged the narrow lens through which they previously viewed Uganda. You cannot claim to tell the Ugandan story without understanding Uganda’s diverse histories, cultures, struggles and triumphs.

If the data and smartphones are in the wrong hands, then all you’ve seen is where you belong—not where your children must belong.

A Nation of Contrasts

See, Uganda is a nation of contrasts and complexities. In some communities, conflicts over land still spark dramatic actions; in others, cattle raids shape security concerns; elsewhere, families still navigate early marriages driven by cultural or economic pressures. These are real, lived Ugandan experiences that cannot be reduced to slogans or hashtags.

But There Is Also Another Picture

West Nile, once defined by waves of refugees fleeing conflict, now enjoys relative stability and cross-border commerce. The north, which suffered decades of rebellion and terrorism, can now be traversed freely—something many young people often take for granted. The ability to stop at Karuma for a selfie today was not always an option; it came through years of hard security work and painful national choices.

This campaign trail has exposed young people to the realities that leaders at all levels must face—realities that cannot be understood through rhetoric alone. If your smartphone and data are in the wrong hands, you surely can’t miss the “prioritisation agenda”—whether you agree or not, the principle stands: every nation must choose what to tackle first, with the resources it has.

A Call to Civic Responsibility

So here is my call.

Young people must now place themselves at the centre of national interrogation. This starts with a simple civic duty: question every leader—presidential, parliamentary, district, or parish level—because leadership begins at the grassroots.

Break the narrative that takes us back, like the clan leader in Mukono whose spirits demand sh650m, or the politician who encourages you to destroy infrastructure.

Interrogate the CAOs who manage district resources, the RDCs who oversee accountability and government programs, LC leaders who determine how services reach communities. Don’t be part of the uninformed, manipulative electorate. A curious electorate is the hardest to deceive.

On Political Claims: Why You Must Fact-Check

In this era, facts are not locked in libraries—they are one click away. When any politician claims that “nothing has been built” in a given region, it takes only basic research to verify or disprove it.

The data—on roads, electricity, health investments, schools and cross-border projects—is freely available. Don’t ignore both the progress made and the existing gaps. Your hands should not be the wrong ones!

So, when Bobi Wine promises to “revive tourism,” yet he is on record publicly portraying Uganda as unsafe abroad, the youth must ask: who exactly needs reviving? When he says “when I die, my body should be taken to State House for Museveni to eat,” pause and ask: is my leader normal? When you manipulate Trump’s voice or Cristiano Ronaldo, is it content creation or a smart phone and data in wrong hands?

Build, Don’t Break

The point is simple: Your inquisitiveness will ask us to not destroy what is working in order to fix what is not broken. Add a brick instead. Build forward. Because one day, you will no longer be “the youth.” If every generation chooses to tear down the house, your children will only inherit debris. It’s the debris of a bottomless pit of debt, chaos, broken societies, shattered families, poor infrastructure, the AIDS scourge, disease, lack of social services and severe brain drain that 1986 inherited. And a nation cannot be built on a cycle of break-and-rebuild driven by frustration rather than vision.

The Digital Responsibility

Use this campaign trail as an eye-opener. Having travelled, seen the landscape, met the communities and witnessed your country first hand—do not let that experience end with the election. Even after campaigns are done, you have a powerful tool: your digital space.

Use it to promote your country’s beauty, its stories, its potential. The responsibility we share is simple: to build, not to break; to question, not to follow blindly; and to leave the country better than we found it.

Final Word

Young people, you deserve leaders who respect your intelligence—not as tools in someone else’s ambition. If you are a content creator, do not be the one whose smart phone and data are in the wrong hands.

The writer is with Strategic Communications; APT Communications and an Author